20 Years - A Tomb Raider Fanfic
by laracroftNNXT
Summary: A re-imagination of the storyline from the LAU Trilogy. It has been 20 Years since Lara's mother Amelia died. Lara decides to remember her in her own little way. She then gets hired by a journalist to find a set of ancient gemstones. Little does she know the adventure that will take her on...


I do not own Tomb Raider, Lara Croft, or any of the non-original characters used in this story. All rights go to Crystal Dynamics, Core Design, Eidos and Square Enix. I own nothing except my creativity and my original characters.

The Himalayas, Nepal, 6:15 am, 1998

Lara and her mother Amelia were sat by each other on the plane while on their journey to India to go and meet Lara's father Richard. Lara was studying her journal that was filled with drawings of yeti, or at least what Lara thought yetis looked like. "Just because no one's ever caught one, doesn't mean they're not real." The six year old Lara commented.

"That is very true, but perhaps they don't wish to be found. I've heard they're rather fierce." Amelia was rather calm at the moment, and she was looking forward to seeing Lara's father again. It had been a few months since they had seen Richard, as he had been in India looking for a mystical red gemstone that had supposedly been hidden there.

"Yeti only look fierce." Lara responded with, then adding "They probably don't like being so cold all the time, I shouldn't like it either." Amelia smiled at her six year old daughter, and then said "You never have to be cold my Lara, if you don't want to be." And with that, she gave Lara a small and gentle kiss on the head, and Lara smiled a little. However, Lara then looked out of the window and saw a bright orange glow outside. "Look!" Lara's eyes widened and she began to get really worried. Suddenly, the entire plane shook and both Lara and Amelia fell out of their seats. Amelia stumbled towards the cockpit of the plane, and asked "Henry, what's happened!"

One of the pilots then said "Lady Croft, please stay seated!" The pilots then started mumbling to each other and were trying to inform the others that they were crashing. Lara looked out of the circular window at the deep grey sky and the orange light coming from the plane. One of the pilots then revealed that they had lost their portside engine. Amelia then pulled Lara away from the window and into a seat. She plugged her seatbelt in for Lara, who then asked "Are we going to crash?" with a nervous look on her face. Amelia then stumbled into her own seat and replied with "Not unless it's absolutely necessary." A suitcase then flew around the plane and almost went into Amelia's face, however she managed to avoid it. One the pilots was filled with worry as he said "Stabilizer's jammed, kicking rudder losing altitude, we're going full nose down!" Lara then shook about in her seat as the plane swayed from side to side. An alarm began to sound, as Amelia softly told her daughter to close her eyes. However Lara then responded with "I don't want to close my eyes." Lara's eyes were filled with sadness, worry and dread all at the same time. The plane then crashed down into the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal, and glass from the windows smashed everywhere. Young Lara blacked out after that.

Croft Manor Crypt, London, 5:05 am, 2018

Lara opened the door to the Croft Family Crypt, brushing the cobwebs as she did so. It was the 20th Anniversary of her mother Amelia's death. She had brought a bottle of champagne and two champagne glasses in with her, see it was Lara's little tradition. She had heard that her mother's favourite drink was champagne, and so every year, on the day her mother died, she would drink champagne in the Croft Family Crypt. She would also fill up a glass of champagne for her mother, although obviously her mother wouldn't actually drink it, it was just a little thing that Lara did. She would sit in front of the place her mother's body was, and talk about what had happened each year. However this year she didn't have a lot to say, as not much has happened, so she ended up just drinking champagne by herself.

The Himalayas, Nepal, 6:30 am, 1998

Lara woke up and immediately smelt something burning. Then she remembered what had happened. It wasn't too long after the plane had crashed, and she couldn't really see clearly. Although what she could see was blood everywhere. Streaks of red were around the plane wreck, and bodies were lying next to her on the ground. She couldn't see her mother's though. "Mother?" She called. "Mother where are you?!?" She cried in fear. She then had the strength to get up and get out of the plane debris. Now she was outside, she could see her mother lying in a pile of ash. She could swear she could see her moving. She began to run to the debris to try and save her mother, however the plane then proceded to explode. It went up in flames, and Lara ran away. Once she had gotten to a safe place, she fell on her hands and knees, and tears began to stream down her face. "MOTHER!" She cried - her tears created small puddles in the snow on the ground. She couldn't believe that she had seen her own mother die right in front of her. She fell down now, tears still falling down her face. When she had calmed down, she began to get back up again. Poor Lara didn't know what to do, where to go, or who she could talk to to get some help. There was no one except her, the bodies of the pilots, and her now dead mother.

Croft Manor Crypt, London, 5:15 am, 2018

Back in the present, Lara shuddered at the memory of how her mother died. She sipped some more of her champagne, however Winston then came in. "Hello Winston," Lara welcomed him. "I'm sorry to interrupt you Lady Croft, but there's someone who wants to speak with you." He replied calmly. Lara put her champagne glass down and asked "Do you know who it is?" Winston came closer and replied with "She said her name was Sunny Deis."

"Sunny Deis? That's a bit of an unusual name." She said. Winston simply nodded. "Alright. I'll see her." Lara brought the champagne glasses and the bottle with her. Winston followed after her.

Lara walked through the grand mansion doors and was instantly greeted by Maria. Maria was the new 'replacement' for Alister since he had died. Lara had actually known Maria since high school, as they were both interested in History and Archaeology. They had been rivals once, however over time they had become friends. "Good morning Lara," Maria greeted with a smile on her face. She was alway really kind to Lara. She had brown eyes, long flowing black hair that reached her shoulders, and red lips. She was in her fluffy pink pyjamas, that were decorated with raspberry pink hearts. "Good morning Maria." She smiled back.

"Wow. Five in the morning and you're already at the champagne." Maria said jokingly. "It's a tradition." Lara responded with. "Oh? What tradition is it?" She asked curiously. "It's the 20th Anniversary of my mother's death." Lara went a bit quiet while saying that. She still felt sad remembering what happened that day. As soon as Lara said that, Maria's face turned from happiness to shock. "Oh God Lara I'm so sorry I was only joking about the champagne and-" she was cut off by Lara. "It's fine Maria, don't worry." Lara smiled and tried to calm Maria down. She was actually a little bit drunk right now. Maria calmed down and smiled back at Lara. Lara turned around and saw a woman with mid-length blonde hair, dark tinted glasses, blue eyes, and bright red lips. She was wearing a formal black blouse and a formal black skirt. Lara didn't know her properly, but she did recognise her from somewhere...

"And you must be Sunny Deis." Lara held out her hand for Sunny to shake. "It's nice to meet you Lady Croft." She said as she shook Lara's hand and smiled. She had quite a few wrinkles, but she still looked pretty. "Please, call me Lara." Lara insisted. "Ok then." Sunny smiled.

"Take a seat." Lara gestured. Sunny sat down on a comfy looking yellow sofa that was decorated with some soft cushions. "Lara," she started "I'm here from the local news company. I'm a journalist, you may have seen me on the News before." _'Oh! So that's where I recognise her from_.' Lara thought. Lara nodded her head and Sunny continued.

"I'm here because our research team has discovered something - a mystical gem hidden in a temple in Greece." Sunny said. With that sentence, Lara immediately flashed back to when her father was looking for the mystical red gem in India. She began to wonder if it had been in Greece all this time. "We know that you're father was once looking for a gem very similar to this one, andwe were wondering if you wanted to find it for us. For yourself. You can continue your father's legacy if you do this." Sunny was good at persuasion, she always had been. "What does it look like?" Lara asked, desperate to find out if it was the exact same thing her father had been looking for. "We don't properly know yet, but one of my colleagues made a rough sketch of what it might possibly look like." She held up the sketch and Lara took a close look at it. It was the same shape as the gem her father had been looking for, but not the same colour. The one her father had been looking for was red, this one was green. "So, Lara, do you want to help find this?" Sunny then asked. Lara thought hard for a moment. She had been taking a little break recently off of tomb raiding, however she felt like this would be a better time than any to get back into it. Besides, there was nothing really to do around here anyway. "I'll do it." Lara said confidently. "Excellent." Sunny beamed. That was probably the reason that called her Sunny, as she smiled a lot, and she seemed a very happy person to be around. "We'll arrange a flight for you tomorrow, if that's ok with you." Sunny said. "Yes, that's fine thanks." Lara responded. And with that, Sunny left, saying "Thank you for your time Lara." Lara was kind of happy that she had a new adventure to go on.

Continues in Part 2!


End file.
